The mission of the Air Force is like a highly complex machine. Each piece of the machine is vital to it operating successfully. The E-9A Widget is a very small, yet highly important piece to that machine.

Arnold Engineering Development Complex engineers at the National Full Scale Aerodynamics Complex assisted in recent testing of sub-scale parachutes for the next mission of the Orion spacecraft, Exploration Mission-1.

Eight British airmen buried in Malaysia after 67 years Eight British World War II airmen have been buried with military honors in Malaysia, nearly 70 years after their plane crashed while on a mission in Southeast Asia. The eight were crewmembers of a Royal Air Force plane that left Cocos Island Aug. 23, 1945, to…

The O’Gara Group, Inc. has entered into a definitive purchase agreement with BAE Systems Survivability Systems LLC to acquire BAE Systems Commercial Armored Vehicles LLC. The O’Gara Group is a global provider of security products and services. BAE Systems Commercial Armored Vehicles armors selected vehicle models for both government and commercial customers as well as…

NASA is accepting applications from graduate and undergraduate university students to fly experiments to the edge of space on a scientific balloon next year. The balloon competition is a joint project between NASA and the Louisiana Space Consortium in Baton Rouge. NASA is targeting fall 2013 for the next flight opportunity for the High Altitude…

President Hamid Karzai said Oct. 18 the nation’s military and police are ready and willing to take full responsibility for security in the country if the U.S.-led international coalition decides to speed up the handover to Afghan government forces. With support for the already unpopular war fading in the West, there has been growing speculation…

The Hampton Roads area of Virginia has played a vital role in the history of the United States, and of the military in particular, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said in Norfolk, Va., Oct. 19. Since the Civil War and the first battle between two ironclad ships, the area has been on the leading edge…

ATK announced Oct. 17 that the U.S. Air Force awarded the company a $32 million contract to produce 30mm tactical and training ammunition. The ammunition is used by the U.S. Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt cannon. “We are pleased that the Air Force has selected us to arm their A-10 crews,” said Bruce DeWitt, Vice President…

A comprehensive study of hundreds of galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected pattern of change that extends back 8 billion years, or more than half the age of the universe. “Astronomers thought disk galaxies in the nearby universe had settled into their present form…

Army photograph by Tom Faulkner A team of U.S. Army engineers are developing new battery chargers for smartphones, tablet computers and laptops for deployed Soldiers without access to a traditional electrical grid. They have engineered and built prototypes for 8-port, 4-port, and 2-port USB chargers, as well as an AC/USB adapter – all of which…

Courtesy photograph The AM General BRV-O vehicle is one of three in the Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program’s Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase. The U.S. Army-led Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV program, is beginning a 33-month Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase, also known as EMD. The EMD phase is designed to test and…

The U.S. Air Force says an airman died during survival training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. The Air Force confirmed Oct. 17 that Maj. Garrett Knowlan died last week during a four-day, water-survival course. Knowlan was a 2002 graduate of the Air Force Academy and a 2010 graduate of the Air Force Test…

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Pushing the Boundaries of Propelling Deep Space Missions

Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center are advancing the propulsion system that will propel the first ever mission to redirect an asteroid for astronauts to explore in the 2020s. NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission will test a number of new capabilities, like advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), needed for future astronaut expeditions into deep space, including to Mars.
The Hall thruster is part of an SEP system that uses 10 times less propellant than equivalent chemical rockets. In a recent test, engineers from Glenn and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, using a Glenn vacuum chamber to simulate the space environment, successfully tested a new, higher power Hall thruster design, which is more efficient and has longer life. “We proved that this thruster can process three times the power of previous designs and increase efficiency by 50 percent,” said Dan Herman, Electric Propulsion Subsystem lead.
Hall thrusters trap electrons in a magnetic field and use them to ionize the onboard propellant. The magnetic field also generates an electric field that accelerates the charged ions creating an exhaust plume of plasma that pushes the spacecraft forward. This method delivers cost-effective, safe and highly efficient in-space propulsion for long duration missions. In addition to propelling an asteroid mission, this new thruster could be used to send large amounts of cargo, habitats and other architectures in support of human missions to Mars.
Image Credit: NASA
Michelle M. Murphy (Wyle Information Systems, LLC) Read More

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